Lucky Bamboo all the rage for feng shui home

Miami - It's said to be "one of the oldest lucky charms known to man" and used by Chinese masters of feng shui to help bring energy to home and garden.

It is Lucky Bamboo.

In real life, it isn't bamboo at all, but a relative of the upright corn plants that stand in the corners of untold numbers of offices and condos.

As Lucky Bamboo, Dracaena sanderiana, originally from Cameroon in Africa, has been plucked of its leaves. The dracaena (drah-SEE-nah) arrives by plane or ship from mainland China, Korea or Taiwan and is sold as a stick.

If it's 6 inches tall, it commands $4. If curved at the top, it can bring $10 or $15. Or, if it's really tall and curvy, it can go for $28.

You simply place one or more sticks in a vase with some marbles or river rocks, and voila! you have a carefree arrangement.

"There isn't anything else quite like it on the market," said Heather Itzla, a spokeswoman for Smith & Hawken, the chic California garden shop/catalog concern.

"The beauty of it is that it's so easy and simple," said Tony Yung, co-owner of the wholesale company Lucky Bamboo in Los Angeles. "We introduced it to the (U.S.) market about three years ago. It started in Asia about five years ago."

Whether it's because of the popularity of feng shui or the elegant architectural lines or the ease of care, Lucky Bamboo is selling like hotcakes.

Gen Zhang, import manager for My Too Sprouts, a division of NPK farm supplies in Homestead, said, "When I was in China, they did not know about Lucky Bamboo and an association with feng shui." He thinks the feng shui bit might be a marketing tool.

Still, Zhang said, "It's going to be hot. It's going to be a fashion this year. We're pouring lots of money into it."

Atlantic Yard, the gardener's gift and supply store in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has carried it for 18 months. At OFE International, the Miami area orchid supply company, several Lucky Bamboo are sold braided together and tied with red ribbons.

The Eliases' arrangements of the Lucky Bamboo cost $87.50 for four stalks in an oval glass vase and $179 for eight tall pieces that curve voluptuously in a two-foot round vase. Each stick ends with a little shoot of leaves and each has sprouted roots. A five-tiered arrangement for $139 has dozens of stems, each about the size of a Mont Blanc pen, packed in concentric circles in a round bowl.

Each has been topped with green wax to give the cut end a finished look.

Tony Yung said the appeal of the Lucky Bamboo reaches from the high-end Vegas casinos to the flower carts in local malls.

He said 70 percent of his crop goes to Japan, 20 percent to Europe and 10 percent to the United States.

Meanwhile, in Apopka, Fla., Ton Lo imports them to his Penang Nursery. He plants them, then in four to 12 weeks, harvests them and sells them to retail outlets such as Target, Kmart, Albertsons and Publix.

Lo, from Malaysia, saw Lucky Bamboo four years ago when traveling in China. He buys it by the field. "We have our own people in China processing them," he said.

Itzla, of Smith & Hawken, said the sticks are "wildly popular. We're very happy with this product." Smith & Hawken sells vases and copper bowls for displaying the dracaenas, and they will have more related products coming out in the fall.

The curled and twisted tops are created by rotating the normally straight canes toward light ("according to feng shui methodology," said one online source). Then, when the right height and curl are reached, the canes are treated and packed.

Yung from Los Angeles said the plants are pumped up with nutrients so they will last a long time in a vase.

Lo's wholesale prices are $7 for a 3-foot cane or stalk and $5 for a 24-inch piece. That's still expensive at a wholesale level because of all the handling that must go into the plant, as well as shipping and time in the field. In addition, Lo said, for every 10,000 that are shipped, 2,000 or 3,000 die from dehydration or disease.